Malcolm Douglas’s 1976 film ‘Across the Top’ inspired countless people to head to northern Australia and his premature death is a tragic loss.
Fiona Lake Blog
Malcolm Douglas 14 March 1941 to 23 September 2010
September 30th, 2010FOOD,INC film – let’s hope the vegetarian barrow-pushers don’t overshadow the important message
May 10th, 2010The film (movie) Food,Inc was produced in the U.S.A. and released in 2009, and is about to be released in Australia (next week – 20th May). Food,Inc. is especially relevant in the U.S.A. – the home of rubbish takeaway foodchains and an obesity epidemic (though not to suggest that we’re all Olive Oils here in […]
‘Iconic landscapes’ – another exercise in wasting taxpayer’s money
February 26th, 2010Today I stumbled upon ‘Iconic Landscapes’.Quoting the home page: “A group of researchers representing the Sciences and Arts at the University of Sydney have been funded by the University’s Institute for Sustainability to conduct a study looking at how communities value the environment and understand local environmental challenges and their options to overcome them.They are […]
International Federation of Agricultural Journalists ‘Star’ prize
June 2nd, 2009This year 20 of the 29 member countries of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists sent entries to the IFAJ’s ‘Star’ Prize for Agricultural Photography. A record 157 photographs have been entered into the three categories – Nature, People and Production. As usual, the competition will be judged by three photographers from different countries – […]
Life Source – Queensland
June 1st, 2009Life Source is a new organisation which was launched at Beef 2009 at Rockhampton, aimed at countering increasingly negative agricultural stereotypes. Peter Mahoney, of Theodore, is the primary contact. While the Queensland Country Life has indicated that fighting the tree-clearing ban is a primary objective, Life Source appears to have broader objectives than that. Life […]
Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) ads are scrutinised by The Gruen Transfer
May 14th, 2009Last night’s episode of ABC television’s Advertising/Marketing programme, The Gruen Transfer, scrutinised several Meat & Livestock Australia advertisements produced over more than a decade. These television advertisements are hugely expensive to produce and incredibly expensive to run. Many meat producers complain about their high industry levies, so they should be thrilled to see this intelligent […]
Be Veg Be Green Save the Planet! at it again – now in newspapers
May 14th, 2009Yesterday’s free Townsville newspaper, Sun community Newspapers, has a 3/4 page full colour ad from Supreme Master Ching Hai; ‘world-renowned Humanitarian, Artist and Spiritual teacher’ (her words). We’ve seen the Go Veg Be Green Save the Planet! ads during prime viewing time on SBS television over the last 6 months, but in the newspaper ad, […]
Australian agriculture’s bad image
April 24th, 2009Quadrant is one of the few genuinely independent magazines in Australia today. Most of our newspapers and magazines are filled with the same old shallow, repetitive, syndicated tripe, ‘advertorials’ and sensationalist scaremongering that isn’t backed up with verifiable facts. Quadrant writers are individual thinkers who are not afraid to disagree with and discuss popular views, […]
The ‘Australia’ film – why did some people hate it and so many people love it?
April 17th, 2009The huge gulf between those who loved & those who hated Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Australia’ is best explained by reading the comments from the general public on some of the film forums, such as Nine MSN’s ‘Your Movies’. The comments on this blog illustrate two great things – a) most Australians think for themselves rather than […]
Farmers are uneducated peasants who destroy the landscape and cause global warming
April 3rd, 2009In today’s Sydney Morning Herald newspaper Paul Myers, freelance journalist and former Rural Press General Manager, former editor of The Bulletin and R.M. William’s Outback Magazine, has written an excellent piece on the woeful state of the general public’s image of Australian farmers and graziers. Paul rightly points out that the world only grows enough […]